Previews

The Interrogation Room: Resistance 3

Welcome to the Interrogation Room, GameSpy's signature pre-release game coverage format. Here, a GameSpy editor (typically one who's relatively in-the-dark about the game in question) grills his peers for information on a hotly anticipated game -- hopefully with more entertaining results than the typical boilerplate preview would
provide.

Eric Neigher, Contributing Editor: So, Mike, you somehow managed to break the PlayStation 3 that was running the Resistance 3 demo, in full view of the Sony PR staff, necessitating a dirty look from a PR girl when I asked her to fix it. Thanks a lot, jerk. I guess you might as well tell me about Resistance 3, since you ruined everything else. You were playing some kinda sniper level?

Mike Sharkey, News Editor: It's true. Maybe not the part about the PR girl -- but you certainly can't take me anywhere, especially places with sensitive electronics. E3 and I go together like rabid jungle cats and overweight emo bison. But that's neither here nor there. Once the Resistance 3 geek squad from Insomniac Games got me back up and running, I was an alien-capping legend on the sniper-focused level from the Resistance 3 campaign. You saw me see take out Chimera sniper hybrids from multiple hundreds of yards away, right?

Eric Neigher: Yeah, I did see you taking out sniper hybrids from more like a couple of DOZEN yards, but still, very impressive. Did you get a sense of any differences in terms of enemy A.I. or the feel of the game or weapons?

Mike Sharkey: This particular map is all about the game's new Chimera enemy, the sniper hybrid. These cats cloak themselves like Harry Potter sneaking around Hogwarts, and they prefer to do their damage from long range, taking "where did that come from?" potshots at you from afar. Lucky me, though: It just so happens I was packing one of those alien sniper rifles myself, and as I said before, I put it to good use, taking suckas out from hundreds of yards.

Eric Neigher: OK, so how does one deal with said snipers when they're cloaked, oh master of long-range combat? Also, did you get a feel for the map itself? Any sense of where it was in the story, or what kind of pacing it demanded?

Mike Sharkey: To answer your last question first, it was difficult to tell exactly where in the story this map takes place, but it definitely had that classic change-of-pace feel. After battling hordes of Chimera in cities and towns -- as seen in previous previews of Resistance 3 -- this level is set in the woods, at night, in an area dotted by a handful of dilapidated cabins, a la Jacob's pad from Lost. And a Chimera ship was slowly circling above, searching with its spotlight.

The cloaked sniper hybrids only add to the cool creepy atmosphere, because you don't know from where or when they'll attack. That is, until they actually prepare to attack, lighting up the sky with Pink Floyd-esque laser-scope shows. And that's the rub. Insomniac did a great job establishing tension on this level, but then basically threw it out the window because you can spot the cloaked Chimera from the next town over, courtesy of their "hey, over here!" red laser scopes. A strange design choice, indeed.

Eric Neigher: Yeah, sounds a little janky. Even I noticed those laser sights, and that was with literally dozens of E3 booth babes clawing at me for my tender ministrations. Anyway, any closing thoughts on Resistance 3? Any comparisons to other shooters you've seen at E3, or a feel for it in the Resistance canon? Anything you want to leave your faithful readers with?

Mike Sharkey: It's amazing you managed to get out of the Sony booth in one piece. But seriously, why cloak enemies when you can spot them even more easily than standard enemies because of their weapons? Definitely a head-scratcher. As I said earlier, I envision this level as a nice change-of-pace map in the full Resistance 3 campaign, and its creepy atmosphere and level of tension are terrific. The whole sniper laser-scope thing throws everything off a bit, but not nearly enough for me to think Resistance 3 -- based on everything we've seen of the game up to this point -- won't be the best rendition of the franchise yet.